TRAIN THE CHILD THROUGH HIS WORK 



BETTER 



COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



for 



MISSOURI 



MISSOURI'S 
FARM BOYS AND GIRLS 

Must Have 

A SQUARE DEAL 



YOU CAN'T MAKE MUCH OF A MAN 
UNLESS YOU BEGIN WITH THE BOY 







Deserves the Best 



BETTER 

COUNTRY SCHOOLS 



for 



MISSOURI 



IF YOU WANT TO ACCOMPLISH 
ANYTHING WORTH WHILE 

You Aliist 

Talk About It 
Write About It 
Fight For It 

UNTIL EVERYBODY IS SICK OF IT 
AND THEN KEEP TALKING, WRITING 
AND FIGHTING I NTIL YOU GET IT 



< i.l.yr:Khtt-d 191'.t 



riii>iisiii-(i lino i>y 
INTERNATIONAL HARVESTER COIVIPANY 

" (Incorporated) 

AGRICULTURAL EXTENSION DEPARTMENT 

P. G. Hold EN, Director 
HARVESTER BUILDING, CHICAGO 



AE44A-2-3-19 



To the People of Missouri 

There is no greater problem in America today than the problem of 
reconstruction of education. We have made marvelous educational 
growth in Missouri in recent years, yet our country schools, as a class, do 
not measure up to the needs of today. 

If we are to keep the world safe for Democracy it must be through 
the medium of an intelligent citizenship in America. During the past 
school year, the average Missouri child was in school less than five months. 
The report of the survey made during the past year shows a condition 
which we, as Missourians, ought to realize and which we ought not to 
allow to exist in this State. 

The teaching of the public schools must be revised so that the right 
kind of training shall be given in both city and country. The child must 
be educated so that he can work with his hands as well as with his head. 
His heart must be trained and his health preserved. 

At the request of Governor F. D. Gardner, the State Superintendent 
of Public Schools, in co-operation with the Missouri State Teachers' 
Association and other educational agencies, made a survey of the 
one-room country schools of this State. 

Some of the results of the survey are given in this publication, which 
is prepared by the State Department of Public Schools in co-operation 
with the International Harvester Company. 

Great credit is due Mr. T. J. Walker, State Inspector of Rural Schools 
of Missouri, the County Superintendents of Schools and the teachers 
for their efficient help in assisting the State Department of Public Schools 
to create interest in planning a state-wide movement for the betterment 
of our country schools by advocating and teaching Vitalized .Agriculture, 
following the Rotation Plan. '**. • 

Very sincerely yours, 

UEL W. LAMKIN. 

State Superintendent. 

©C1.A51465« 



Nov. 1. 1918. 



4 

MAR cL\ 1919 



BOOKS ARE DEAD FACTS 



THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 
OUR BIGGEST PROBLEM 

TRAINS HALF OUR BOYS AND GIRLS 

DOES IMOT FIT FOR COUNTRY LIFE 

DOES WOT DEAL WITH COUIMTRY 

PROBLEMS 

FACES THE CHILD 

AWAY FROW THE FARM 

WO WOWDER THE COUWTRY SCHOOL 
HAS BEEW WEGLECTED 
HAS MADE LITTLE PROGRESS 

WE DOIMT NEED TO HAVE 
POOR COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

WE MAY THIWK WE DO 
BUT WE DOWT 



The Country School Our Biggest Problem 

IT trains one-half our boys and girls. Half our population receive 
•*■ here their training for life. 

The country schools do not meet country needs; but in the 
city schools we find courses of study in bookkeeping, stenography, 
business law, courses that train in industries, shop work, carpentry, 
sewing, cooking and those things which train for life's work. 

The country school does not train for country life, does not deal 
with country problems; in fact, the country school faces the child directly 
away from the farm. Books, dead facts, dates, words, dry as dust, having 
no bearing on the vital interests of country life — these constitute the 
greater part of the country child's school work. 

The country school has been neglected by those who should be its 
best friends. Parents who dwell in the country turn away from it to 



6 THE COUNTRY SCHOOL HAS BEEN NEGLECTED 



the city schools. The leading educators of America have sold their 
services to the highest bidders, the city school boards; and as a result 
the best trained minds of the nation have devoted their attention to the 
city schools, leaving to the country only those who could not command 
the patronage of city schools, or those who were willing to make personal 
sacrifices to teach in the country schools. Country schools have been 
neglected by class room teachers in the same way. They have been made a 
convenience, a place to try out young teachers. When a teacher makes 
good in the country and shows real ability, the city picks her up and 
leaves the country school to take its chance with other young, poorly 
prepared, untried beginners. If she fails in the country school she knows 
that over in another community there is a school board who may hire 
her, so she becomes a "tramp teacher," drifting here and there, without a 
permanent abiding place and therefore without personal interest in 
any given community. Legislators have passed up the country school 
as a thing of small importance. "It has many flatterers, but few friends." 

Little progress has been made in the rural schools. It has been 
said that should a Rip Van Winkle wake up in a modern barn he would 
realize that he had slept 150 years; but should his waking take place in 
the average Missouri rural school he would turn over to finish his nap. 

To bring about improvement in Missouri's rural schools, there must 
be agitation, education and determination. The people must be 
stimulated to want better rural schools and to be willing to pay for 
them. No one will doubt that the rural schools of Missouri have made 
advancement, but the progress on the whole has been so slow that when 
compared with other things about us they appear to have gone backward. 
There are a few wonderful and inspiring illustrations of what rural schools 
have done, under good leadership, to reorganize and vitalize the life of 
a whole community. But these are mere instances. The facts are that 
the rural school situation in Missouri, as well as in every other state, is 
far from what it ought to be, and often is bad— bad beyond description. 

Certainly we are all agreed that the country school house, out build- 
ings, surroundings, the school equipment, decoration, light, water, heat- 
ing, and sanitation are not only far from perfect, but, on the whole, are 
wretchedly bad. 

The teacher ought to be a part of the life of the community; but she 
is not. Often she is city raised and city taught with little or no interest 
in the affairs of the community. Frequently she goes out to her school 
Monday mornings and back to town on Friday nights or out each morning 
and back at night. 



LIFE IS MADE UP OF REAL PROBLEMS 



The children should be taught in terms of home problems and home- 
making. At present the rural school exerts little influence on the social 
or business life of the community, schools being regarded as something 
apart from real life. 

We all know how eagerly the child starts to school, how anxious 
he is to learn, and we all know that somewhere between the first and the 
sixth grades, sometimes as early as in the fourth grade, he loses this 
enthusiasm. 

What is the reason? Why does all the enthusiasm, the desire, the 
interest dwindle until it requires coaxing, bribing, scolding, and even 
the threatening of compulsory education laws to keep the pupil in school 
until he reaches his fourteenth year? 

Why? Because he sees no connection between what we are teach- 
ing him at school and the life around him. 

Life is made up of problems. The boy wants to begin to work 
out some of the problems which come up in his every day life. He 
wants to get started on his life's work. He wants to get busy. 

Give the boy real things to do. Let him begin to solve real prob- 
lems, let him learn how to manage, how to rotate crops to produce 
enough to pay the rent or the interest on his investment. Let the 
girl learn how to keep house, cook, manage the affairs of the home. 

If the school work is of the right character, and the school is under 
the guidance of a capable teacher, there will be real interest taken in the 
school work. 

We donl need to have poor schools. The rural school can be the 
real life of the community, and will be some day. But that "some day" 
will depend upon you — not someone else — but you. 



If you are going to do anything per- 
manent for the average man, you must 
begin before he is a man. The chance of 
success lies in working with the boy, and 
not with the man. 

— Theodore Roosevelt. 



MISSOURI RANKS THIRTY-SECOND 



MISSOURI 
RANKS 32ND IN EDUCATIOIM 

V» m WEALTH 

5™ IN AGRICULTURE 

2ND iig MULES 

3"° IN HOGS AND CORN 

I ST IN POULTRY 

I ST IN PURE BRED STOCK 

|ST IN LEAD AND ZINC 

BUT aZ^MIM EDUCATIOIM 



AIi"'iurl ( 'i i:iiiiii-.-i')ti<T of A'-t1['uII urc. 



Missouri Ranks Thirty-Second 

MISSOURI ranks 32nd in educational opportunities and 
support of her public schools, taking country and city schools 
together. But she is seventh in wealth, being surpassed by only those 
states that have large cities and great manufacturing centers. She is 
fifth in agricultural products, yet with vast undeveloped agricultural 
possibilities. She produces more poultry than any other state — the total 
annual receipts from the chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese would pay 
the running expenses of her schools for four years. Missouri is first in 
pure bred stock, second in mules, third in hogs and corn, and first in 
lead and zinc — a position in the commercial world of which any state 
can justly be proud; but she stands 32nd in education. The city 
of St. Louis, alone, h?s es much wealth as the entire state of Kansas 



TAKE AN INTEREST IN THE COMMUNITY 9 

and yet Kansas ranks seven points above Missouri in education. Shall 
it be said of us that we are spiritually poor, that we are "mentally embar- 
rassed," that we are miserly with our wealth, denying ourselves things 
that are better than moneys but which money will buy? 

It is not the fault of Missouri's resources that she stands 32nd out of 
48 states in the rank of her educational opportunities. Missouri is but 
the reflection of her people. What she is and what she does is purely a 
human problem. 

It is not how much we have, but how much we give. Giving little, 
httle do we receive. 

People of Missouri, are you willing to permit Missouri to stand at 
the foot of the class? That is the place she now occupies— the states 
ranking lower being those where there is a large per cent of negro popu- 
lation. It is little short of disgraceful, and certainly humiliating. 



We Owe a Duty to Family and Community 

The future cf the child largely, if net wholly, depends upon the influ- 
ence of the home and the school. 

We should all take an interest in Ccrrmunity clubs, schools, churches 
and libraries. 

If you have no Community club, help organize one. The men will 
appreciate the benefit derived from discussing their problems with their 
neighbors 

The women can study home problems. They can study Cold Pack 
Canning and help organize Canning clubs. They can organize sewing 
circles. All phases of home making: Planning meals, conservation of 
the food supply, dress designing, textiles, home sanitation, home furnish- 
ing and decoration and household accounts can be discussed. 

As a result of studies in the clubs, women are learning to view house- 
work and homemaking in the right light. Science and art applied to the 
work does away with drudgery. Team work on the part of Club 
members has done much to assist the government in its great hour of need. 

Through the Community club, arrangements may be made for lecture 
courses and traveling libraries to be brought to your community. The 
benefits derived are almost unlim.ited from the standpoint of the individ- 
ual, the community, the school and the church. 

Help make it possible to have better roads, better schools, better 
farms, better health, better laws. 



10 



WITHOUT VISION THE PEOPLE PERISH 



WHAT'S THE MATTER 
WITH MISSOURI 

NOT MANY THINGS BUT MUCH 



SKL PROPRT Y PR CHILD 
MO I^HHIIH $61 

SPENT PR CAPITA 




RANK 
25 




30 



SPENT PR CHILD 




SPENT PR $100 WEALTH 




$20 
36 

25* 
36 



32 



27 



L 



Data tiuiu Rural Sihool Survey. 



What's The Matter With Missouri? 

OF a!! our institutions the public school is the most vital to the life 
of the Nation. Everywhere history tells the story of death and decay 
in those nations that failed to educate properly, ^^hen education is 
wrong, everything is wrong. Where there is no vision, the people perish. 
The schools are the eyes through which the people look into the future. 
Missouri is not living up to her possibilities. She v\ill not become the 
great State that nature intended her to be until she renders adequate 
support to and makes prcptr use cf her country schools. 

The ranking on the accompanying chart takes into consideration 
all the schools of the State— both city and country. When we reflect 
that Kansas City and St. Louis and many of the smaller cities and 
towns have excellent and well supported schools, we are forced to the 
conclusion that Missouri's low rark is due to the low standard of the 



TRANSLATE THEORIES INTO ACTION AND RESULTS 11 

country schools. If all the facts were known, Missouri's country schools 
would rank even lower than 32nd. 

In value of school property per child, Missouri ranks 25th, 
having $61 invested, while Massachusetts has $104. In money spent per 
capita of total population she is 3Cth, while her neighbor state is eighth. 
The Missouri child must get along with only $20 for its education each 
year while his cousin across the line has all advantages that can be 
purchased with $36. Each $100 of Missouri's wealth is called upon 
to give 25 cents each year to the education of Missouri's boys and girls, 
while Massachusetts, a state of concentrated wealth, is called upon to 
give 36 cents of each $100 of its wealth for her schools. 

Study the chart closely. Do you think the people of Missouri are 
on the square with themselves? Think it over. 



TEACH IN TERMS OF THE 
LIVES OF THE PEOPLE 



D 



HE world-wide war has taught us that 
ideas and theories are without value un- 
less translated into action, into results, 
into accomplishments for humanity. 

Boys and girls must be taught in terms of 
their life's work. Public sentiment is demand- 
ing that it be done. The coming generation 
must assume the burden of performing the 
world's work, and fitness is essential to do good 
work. There must be less bookish work. In 
the words of Theodore Roosevelt, "There must 
be more shooting and less shouting;" fewer 
words and more real work. Words will not 
plow a field; words will not build a home; 
words will not develop a great humanity, nor 
build a great nation. Teaching in terms of the 
lives of the people is the Big Idea in Education. 



12 



PAY TEACHERS BETTER SALARIES 



WHATS THE MATTER 
WITH MISSOURI 

NOT MANY THINGS BUT MUCH 



SALARY TEACHERS 




SALARY CO SUPTS 




RANK 
S560 23 

1000 

$1000 43 
2000 



DAYS SCHOOL PR YR 




PUPILS IIM HIGH SKL 




161 
194 

10 



29 



30 



Data truiu liaral .Sfliu<tl .Sur\'ti . 



What's The Matter With Missouri? 

(C ontinued) 

TN the annual salary paid to teachers, Missouri ranks 23rd, paying 
■■■ them a little more than one-half of the salary paid to teachers in 
California. The county superintendent, who is without doubt the 
most important and hardest worked county officer, is the poorest paid; 
and in this regard Missouri ranks 43rd among the states, paying 
only one-half as much as Ohio and one-third as much as New Jersey. 
The average length of term in Missouri is 161 days, a 33-day shorter 
term than Rhode Island. This means that in eight years the Rhode 
Island children have 264 days more schooling than do Missouri children. 
In most cities, a large number of the schools have a term of 200 days and 
practically none has less than 180 days. Of each 100 children in 



COUNTY SUPERINTENDENTS ARE UNDERPAID 



13 



Missouri only six are in high school, while in our neighbor state, Kansas, 
10 out of each 100 children are in high school. 

Missouri is indeed rich in dollars, and houses, and factories; but a 
small part of her great wealth is spent on her schools. She has under- 
paid teachers, underpaid county superintendents, and short terms of 
school. 

The average pay for the whole year of the country school teacher is 
$344; and the average length of the country school term, 140 days. 

Study the chart. Observe the rank of Missouri in these important 
educational matters which mean so much to our boys and girls. 




A country school near 
St. Louis. Note weeds 
and grass. 



A short term is desira- 
ble in such a school 
house. Missouri owes 
these children better 
advantages than they 
can get in this shack. 




14 



GIVE BOYS AND GIRLS A SQUARE DEAL 



MISSOURI DOES (MOT GIVE 
HER COUNTRY BOYS AND GIRLS 
A SQUARE DEAL 



PUPILS EMROLLED 

COUNTRY 
348000 



CITY 
373000 



AWIMUAL EXPDTS. 

fi\iTRY^ 
J5MIU 



CITY 
I5MILLI0IM 



TEACHERS SALARY EXPDTS. PR.CHILD 





Data from I{,ii:il S, lui„l 



Missouri Dees Not Give Her Country Boys 
and Girls a Square Deal 

READER, observe this chart closely. Compare the figures. After 
you have done so, ask yourself this question: "Are Missouri's 
country boys and girls getting a square deal? " 

There is practically the same number of children enrolled in the rural 
schools as in the city schools, yet the country children have only $5,000,000 
expended annually for their education, while the city children have 
$15,000,000 expended on them annually for educational purposes — and 
we talk about equal rights to all. The state expends annually for teachers 
salaries $11,1 20,000, only $3,500,000 of which goes to the country teachers, 
while about the same number of city teachers get $7,700,000. But our 
state Constitution says that a general diffusion of knowledge is essential 



A HOME FOR EVERY AMERICAN 15 

to the liberties of a people. If the children of Missouri were lined up, 
the city children in one line and the country children in another line, and 
we should distribute money to these children to be used for their annual 
education under the present ratio of distribution, we would give to each 
child in the city row three dollars, while to each child in the country row 
we would give one dollar. 

This is not all. There are about 7,000 teachers of the state 
who have had two or more years of normal school training. When 
these best qualified teachers are distributed among the schools of the 
state we find that six of them go into the city schools to one that goes 
into the country school. Yet the Normal schools are institutions supported 
by all the people, and their work should be for the benefit of all the 
people. This is not the fault of the Normal schools. They must do 
what the people demand. The cities are demanding trained teachers; 
the country is willing to take the untrained. Of the 9,000 teachers in the 
state who have had five or more years of experience, over two-thirds 
are teaching city children. Of the 1 ! ,000 having less than five years 
of experience nearly two-thirds are teaching country children. Of those 
who have not had any high school training, there are about 2,500 in the 
state, nearly al! of whom are in the country schools. Of the 3,000 having 
no experience, more than 2,000 are practising on country children. 



A Home for Every American 

REALIZING that the home-owner is the community-builder, the 
people of every community, whether in town cr country, should 
adopt some co-operative plan which would tend to convert the tenant 
into the home-owner. 

But much depends upon the individual. Buying a house and lot or 
a farm is more of a philosophical conclusion than a physical or financial 
transaction. The best citizen is the man who has the courage to own 
property; to pay taxes on it; to build it up and improve it; to help support 
the community; to be useful to himself, his children and the world. 
Such a man embraces the opportunity which only home owning affords 
— the privilege and duty of merging the struggle for life into the struggle 
for life of others. This takes the sting frcm the toil for existence. It 
makes life worth while. 



16 THE COUNTRY PUPIL IS BEHIND 



MISSOURI DOES NOT GIVE 
HER COUNTRY BOYS AND GIRLS 
A SQUARE DEAL 

BL'D'GS AND EQ'IPT TAX LEVY PER SlOO 
PER CHILD. 





AND WHAT IS THE RESULT 

THE COUNTRY PUPIL IS BEHIND 
THE CITY PUPIL IN 

READING I TO 2 YR5. WRITING 3 TO 4 YRS. 
ARITH 2 TO 3 YRS. SPELLING I YR. 

ONLY yz AS MANY FINISH 8TH GRADE 

AND THIS IS NOT ALL 



1 >:ita from Kural iSchuo! iSurvey. 

Missouri Does Not Give Her Country Boys 
and Girls a Square Deal 

(Continued) 

L^OR buildings, grounds, and equipment for the convenience and com- 
■■• fort of the children, the city is spending $125 per child per year, 
while the people in the country contribute $25 per child per year, for the 
same purpose for the country school. 

Why this great difference? Is it because the country boy and girl 
are not entitled to the same conveniences, comforts, and educational 
advantages that are given to the city boy and girl? 

And as to the school tax levy, that which we vote to give our home 
school support, the city pays $1.20 for every $100 assessed valuation 
of property. The tax levy in the country for the support of the country 
schools is only 60 cents for each $100 of property valuation. 



IS THIS A SQUARE DEAL? 



17 



Would that some Almighty power could look deep into the 
hearts of men and there read the motives that prompt the fathers in the 
cities to be twice as liberal in the matter of taxation for their children as 
the fathers who live in the country. One father says: "I am willing to 
give 60 cents out of every $100 assessed valuation for my boy's educa- 
tion." The other father says: "I will pay $1.20 out of each $100." 

And what is the result? In reading, writing, arithmetic, and spell- 
ing the country child is from one to four years behind. Only one-third 
as many children finish the 8th grade in the country as do the children 
in the city. Wasted money, wasted time, wasted life. And this is not 
all. (See page 18.) 



Compare These School Houses With Those 
on Page Thirteen 




"Deer Park" country 
school. Boone County, 
eight miles southeast of 
Columbia. Teacher: 
Miss Laura Haden, 
Columbia, Missouri. 



Burns School, La 
Fayette County: A rural 
school that makes chil 
dren and people proud 
of themselves. 




18 IMPROVE HEALTH CONDITIONS 



MISSOURI HAS 9000 
COUNTRY SCHOOL HOUSES 

2700 WITH OPEN FOUfMDATIOIMS 
4500 WITH STOVES ll\l CENTER OF ROOM 
4500 WITH STOVES MOT JACKETED 
8000 POORLY VENTILATED 

3000 WITHOUT WINDOW SHADES 
1000 WITH SEATS FACING WINDOWS 
5500 WITH SEATS TOO Hi' OR TOO LOW 
1000 WITHOUT ANY TOILETS 

6000 WITH TOILETS UNCLEANED 
1800 WITHOUT DRINKING WATER 
6300 WELLS NOT CLEANED 
1600 WELLS WITH IMPURE WATER 

THESE ARE YOUR CHILDREIMS HOMES 

6 HRS A DAY 8 MOS A YR 

FOR 10 YEARS 



D.itJi Iro.ii llural Schu.*! .Survi'i'. 



Missouri Has 9000 Country School Houses 

HERE are some of the results of the Missouri country school survey: 
Of the 9,000 country schools in Missouri there are 2,700 with open 
foundations, making uniform heating impossible. This means that 
the feet of the children and of the teacher are within one inch of the 
outside temperature. The floor of the school room is cold. The chil- 
dren's feet are cold. To say nothing of the discomfort and danger to 
the health of the child, good mental work is impossible if the feet are 
cold. 

Four thousand, five hundred have stoves in the center of the room — 
universally known to be the worst possible place for a stove. 

Four thousand, five hundred have stoves not jacketed. Those around 
the stove are too warm while those away from it are suffering from I he 



SCREFN OUT THE DEADLY FLY 19 

cold. The result is confusion among the children — moving to and 
from the stove. 

There are 8,000 poorly ventilated schools in Missouri. Why deny 
the children fresh air? Deprived of oxygen the child becomes dull and 
drowsy, his faculties are numbed and the result is poor work. Why 
"chloroform" the children with poor air? Provision should be made 
for proper ventilation in every country school in Missouri. 

There are 3,000 country schools without window shades; 1,000 with 
seats facing the lights. Putting out the eyes of people is a relic of bar- 
barism long since forgotten, yet we are allowing conditions to exist in 
our country schools which are each year impairing the eyesight of thou- 
sands of children. It is as criminal in this age of so-called enlightenment 
to destroy the eyesight of children by carelessness and ignorance, as it 
was in ancient times to destroy their eyes because of superstition and of 
savagery. And think of the bareness of it — think of a home without 
shades. 

Five thousand, five hundred schools have seats either too high or 
too low. This condition in many cases will produce deformity, sunken 
chests, curvature of the spine, stooped shoulders, etc. Circulation is. 
hindered and the child is predisposed to disease because of it. 

There are 1 ,600 country schools with wells containing water not 
fit to drink, 6,300 without cleaned wells and 1 ,800 without drinking water 
of any kind on the grounds or near the schools. 

Out of 9,000 schools we find 1,000 without toilets and 6,000 with 
toilets uncleaned. 

These unsanitary conditions make breeding places for germs of 
disease. Flies that are hatched in these cesspools of filth come into 
the school houses when school opens and there partake of the children's 
lunches and distribute germs of filth and disease. 

Wherever flies are found you may rest assured filth is close by, and 
filthy places are dangerous to health. 

We are ashamed to tolerate a bedbug or body louse. One fly is 
more loathsome and dangerous than a hundred bedbugs or body lice. 

The habits of the fly make it an almost ideal carrier of disease. It 
is the filthiest of all insects. It is born in filth, lives on filth, carries 
filth, and deposits filth on our food. Any filthy, disgusting substance 
is always swarming with flies. 

Watch the fly hatching in the manure heap, and then see it walk 
in slop and garbage, wallow in the disease-laden privy vault, then wing 
its way to the school room, where, entering through unscreened window 
or door, it proceeds to spread disease among the children. 



20 



SCREEN PORCHES, DOORS AND WINDOWS 



You don't need to have flies. Make all privies fly-proof by screen- 
ing, and cover their contents regularly with copperas or iron sulphate to 
keep down odors, and prevent the development of fly maggots. Darken 
the vault — flies avoid dark places. 

Screen porches, doors, and windows of school house. 

Mothers, do not forget that this country school room is the home 
of your boys and girls for eight months of every year for 10 years, at 
a time in their lives when they are young and most susceptible to the 
influences of their surroundings. Do you for one minute expect the best 
in the way of health and future achievement under the conditions now 
existing in more than one-half of Missouri's country schools? Of course 
you do not! And you must realize that there is but one way to right 
the wrong — organize, get behind the movement for better country 
schools; in other words — get together, work together, serve together. 
Create a Missouri sentiment for better things pointing to the best edu- 
cational advantages possible for the country boy and girl. Don't wait 
for your neighbor to start something — get busy, start with a deter- 
mination to do something worth while and in the name of Heaven and 
humanity and the future well-being of Missouri — carry it out. 



The hogs are more 
comfortable under the 
floor of this school than 
the children are above it. 



\ l^"'^^4f^ 









t 


^^BtoeT? 


^ 

i-.'^- 

^ 


iili^^Hirilll3BHIIHi 


Hi 


■i 


m 



Nodaway County's 
Best. 



WHY THIS DIFFERENCE? 



21 



WHY THIS DIFFERENCE 



WEGRo 



V\\5 SCHoo/ 




COUNTRY BOY, 



OOL 



WHAT WILL YOU DO ABOUT IT 



T. J. Walkur. 



Why This Difference? 

TAKE note of the upper part of this chart! 
On the left is a city negro boy's home. 

The picture on the right is the negro boy's school! It is a high 
school with every modern convenience. It has plenty of light and is 
well heated. It has clean toilets and is sanitary throughout. There is a 
playground and a workshop. The boys learn carpentering and the 
girls are taught to cook and sew. They even get free medical attention.. 
The teachers are well paid. 

But study the lower part of the chart and see the difference in the 
life of the country boy! 

On the left is the country boy's hom.e. It is neat and clean and warm. 

The country' boy leaves this comfortable home to spend most of his 



22 DAD AND MA^READ THIS 



day in the school at the right. It is a typical country school — poorly 
lighted, poorly ventilated, with an unjacketed itove and dirty well- 
water. The inside of the school looks as bad as the outside. The 
desks are all the same size — but the children are not. The room is 
barren and untidy. There is nothing for the children to work with. 
They are uncomfortable, as the general appearance cf the school will 
indicate. 

Now — to which one of these schools would you prefer to send your 
boy? Don't you think the country boy should have the sam.e opportunity 
for education as the city boy? Isn't he worth as much to his parents as 
the city boy? Do you think he is getting a square deal? 

You can have whatever kind of a school you wish for your children. 
You are responsible to them. Give them a chance. They will do the 
rest, and you will be proud of them. 



Let Boys and Girls Help Plan Farm Work 

IN PLANNING our farm work for next year we should consult mother 
and the children. 

If we take the family into our confidence v/e will find that they will 
help us solve m.any cf our farm problems. Often the boys are able to give 
Dad some ideas of how to get more money cut cf the eld farm, and we will 
be surprised at the way mother and the girls can help plan the work ef 
the farm and the household so that there will be full co-operation among all 
members of the family. 

Let the boys and girls feel that they have an irterest in the farm — 
that they are not working simply for their "keep." When they feel that 
they have responsibility, that the success of the farm depends upon them 
as well as upon "Dad" and "Ma," they will put fcrth their best efforts. 

Co-partnership in the management and operation of the farm will 
instill within them the pride of ownership; will teach them to think fcr 
themselves, to observe, to study out the why and wherefore, and to ex- 
periment under intelligent guidance. 

See that your children own something — a calf, a pig, cr a lamb. 
Let the ownership be permanent, not temporary; real, not imaginary. 
Don't let it be Willie's pig, and Dad's hog. Let it be Willie's hog and give 
him the price of the hog when it is sold. This will give motive to his work, 
stimulate his interest, develop initiative, train him in terms of business. 

Co-partnership in field and home management, responsibility, own- 
ership — these will keep the boys and girls on the farm; will make them 
alert, thoughtful, energetic, successful men and women. 



DON'T BELITTLE THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 23 



THE LITTLE MESS OF 

THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 

LITTLE DISTRICT 
LITTLE VALUATIOW 
LITTLE LEVY 

LITTLE SCHOOL HOUSE 
LITTLE SCHOOL GROUND 

LITTLE TERM 

LITTLE ATTENDAIMCE 

LITTLE TEACHER 

LITTLE SALARY 

LITTLE CHILDREN TAUGHT 
LITTLE THINGS IN A 
LITTLE WAY 

WE HAVE BELITTLED THE 
BIGGEST JOB IN MISSO URI 



T. .1. W :.lk. 



Littleness of the Country School 

WE say the country school is little — a small proposition. It is. 
It is little because it is made so by neglect, by failure on the 
part of the people to support it. It is just as small as our narrow-minded, 
stingy, begrudging policies have made it. In reality the country school 
problem is the most important problem in America today. 

Here are some of the things which contribute to the deplorable con- 
dition of the country schools of Missouri: 

The average country school district in Missouri contains less than 
six square miles, and many of the districts are smaller. The average 
property valuation in each district is about $90,000. Some district 
valuations are less than $10,000. The average school tax levy for all 
purposes, buildings and maintenance is only 60 cents on each $100 



24 



DO NOT BELITTLE THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 



taxable property. Some districts are without any school tax levy 
and many are below 40 cents on each $100 of taxable property. The 
schoolhouses are small, on the average about 20x30 feet, most of them 
poorly constructed, some of them mere shacks. One acre is the average 
size of the playground. The average length of school term of the 
country school is less than seven months. 

There are 2,179 country schools in Missouri with an average daily 
attendance of less than 15 pupils. 

There are 57 schools having less than four months' terms of school, 
and 631 schools having less than six months of school. 

There are 424 country teachers receiving less than $200 a year salary; 
2,400 country teachers getting less than $300 a year. Imagine $300 
a year for a teacher to train our boys and girls when stenographers, after 
six months' training in a business college, enter positions guaranteed to 
them on graduation, at $65 to $75 per month! 

There are over 2,400 country teachers with no high school training; 
4,000 who have had only one year of high school training or less. 

These are some of the conditions which belittle the country school. 
The people of Missouri are belittling the biggest and most important job 
in Missouri. 




Orange Township Rural School, Black Hawk County, Iowa. Right out 
in the country. There are many other country communities where 
country boys and girls can have like opportunities. 



WHAT IS YOUR BOY WORTH? 25 



MY BOY IS WORTH MORE THAM 
HORSES AMD CATTLE AND LAfMDS 

tEYES $4,000 

EARS 4,000 

ARMS 2.000 

HAMDS 1.000 

LEGS 2.000 



$13,000 



VALUE OF MISSOURI'S BOYS AND GIRLS 
13.000X400,000= $5,200,000,000 

VALUE OF MISSOURI'S 

TAX'BL C'IMTRY PROPTY $880,000,000 

OUR BOYS AND GIRLS 
MISSOURi'S GREATEST ASSET 



What Is My Boy Worth? 

DID you ever stop to figure up the investment ycu have in that boy 
of yours? 

Study the Chart shown above. 

Every boy has two eyes that according to the table cf accident 
insurance are worth $2, CCO apiece; two ears worth as much as his eyes; 
two hands worth a thousand dollars, and two arms and two legs worth 
$4,000. Missouri's 400,000 boys and girls are worth according to these 
figures $5,200,000,000, as against $880,000,000 for Missouri's taxable 
property. 

If your boy has good health, ambition, perseverance, and determina- 
tion to do something worth while in the world he is beyond all price. 
Missouri — What are you doing to get the best out of your boys? Are 
you helping them to start right? Are you preparing them to fit into 
the world's work? Are you training them for citizenship? Think it 
over. 



25 A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY 



WHAT DO WE DO 
WITH THE CHILD- 
THIS DYNAMO OF NERVES 
OF MUSCLES OF ENERGY 

WE SEND HIM TO SCHOOL 

WHEW SIX YEARS OF AGE 

PUT HIM IN A SEAT 

FOR SIX LO(\IG HOURS 

HE CAN'T 

LOOK OUT THE WINDOW 
WHISPER OR TALK 
MOVE HIS HANDS OR HIS FEET 
MAKE PICTURES OR LAUGH 
MAKE A NOISE OR BE NATURAL 

JUST WORDS WORDS WORDS 
FROM THE PAGES OF A BOOK 

A CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY 



A Crime Against Humanity 

TN the next few years the present method cf teaching will be con- 
•*• sidered a crime. It is no less a crime today, but we do not realize 
it because the method has been handed down to us through many genera- 
tions, and we have comiC to believe it is the right way to teach the child. 

Why should children at the period of their greatest activity be 
compelled to sit cramped in their seats six hours a day? 

At this age they are veritable dynamos of nerves, muscles, and energy. 
Can they whisper? No! Look out the window? No! Use their 
hands and feet? No! Can they do anything natural? No! They 
must sit still and keep "mum" except when called upon to recite their 
lessons which they have learned from the pages of a book. 

Grown people cannot and will not stand such treatment. If we 
who are naturally quiet because of our mature ages, find it difficult to 
sit still even for one hour, how can we expect children to sit still for six 
hours a day — day after day and month after month, in fact during the 



HIS FACE IN A BOCK 



27 



entire period of their school work; until they are young ir.en and women? 

These cartoons are not mere jokes — they are tragedies! And 
tragedies for which the teacher is not wholly to blame. She simply 
fell heir to a system. She is living up to her ideal of "keeping order." 
She is doing what is expected of her. In fact she might lose her job if 
she did otherwise. 

The system must be changed. In fact, we are now rapidly changing 
it. Already, especially in our manual training and domestic science 
classes, considerable advancement has been made. Agricultural work, 
if properly taught, will help to bring about better methods. 




The School Room Tragedy 



28 



BOTH A JOKE AND A TRAGEDY 



Just Couldn't Sit Still— Kicked His Neighbor 




MORE WORDS, WORDS, WORDS 



29 



A Love Scene 




SOME of our greatest educators are 
beginning to realize that there is 
as much development, training, and 
culture in the study of a BEET ROOT, 
as there is in the study of a GREEK ROOT 



30 



MAN'S BOOK AND NATURE'S BOOK 



The Wrong Way and the Right Way 




Children Like to Deal With Real Problems— Such as the Testing of 
Seed Corn and Things Which Deal With the Home Life 



THE ROTATION PLAN A SUCCESS 31 



HOW MISSOURI IS MAKING 

HER 

COUNTRY SCHOOLS WORTH WHILE 

BY TEACHING IN TERMS OF FARM LIFE 
BY ROTATING THE SUBJECTS 

|ST YEAR CROPS 

2W0YEAR MAKING THINGS 

3RD YEAR LIVESTOCK 

4THYEAR SOIL AND HOME 

BY MAKING A RURAL SCHOOL SURVEY 
BY CONDUCTING STATE WIDE CAMPAIGN 

FOR BETTER SCHOOLS 

THE WHOLE STATE IS BACK OF IT 

MISSOURI 

HAS STARTED A MOVEMENT 

THAT WILL GO ROUND THE WORLD 



What Missouri is Doing 

The Missouri Plan is: 

1. Teaching in terms of the lives of the people. The study of 
problems connected with the home — the testing of seed corn, canning of 
foods, home making, health problems, and right living. 

2. The adoption of the Rotation Plan in teaching so that there is 
a new line of work each year. The first year, crops or growing things; 
the second year, making things; the third year, animal life; the fourth 
year, soils and home. 

Teaching in terms of life embraces not only subjects directly per- 
taining to farming, but also to everything that concerns the life and 
welfare of the children and the people of the community— health, sanita- 
tion, home conveniences, social conditions, and community interests. 



32 TEACH THINGS, NOT SUBJECTS 

Rotation Plan Gives Pupils More 
Agriculture 

The Rotation Plan enables the teacher to give the pupils more 
agriculture. This is true even though they are actually members of the 
agricultural class only one year. We must remember that in the district 
schools, the pupils in the lower grades know what is taught in the sixth, 
seventh, and eighth grades, and take part at school, and especially at 
home, in helping their older brothers and sisters with the work. 

How to Vitalize the Teaching of Agriculture 
in the Rural Schools 

Rotate the Subjects 

OUR country schools will not be a real success so long as we teach 
exactly the same things over and over and over again year after 
year. Neither will they be a success, if in our attempt to popularize the 
subject, we skim all the interesting things the first year or two, leaving 
nothing crisp and fresh and new for the teachers who follow. 

Let us Rotate the subjects, thus having something new and live each 
year. The following indicates how it can be done — in fact, how it is 
actually being done in Missouri: 

1st Year. GROWING THINGS— Farm Crops; How Seeds Grow; 
Depth to Plant; Corn; Oats; Alfalfa; Weeds; Gardens; Canning. 

2nd Year. MAKING THINGS— Rope Knots; Splicing Rope; Fly Traps 
and Screens; Cement Tanks, Steps, and Posts; Farm Tools and 
Machines; Home Conveniences; Removing Stains; Sewing. 

3rd Year. LIVE THINGS — Animals; Poultry; Birds; Insects; Cooking. 

4th Year. SOIL AND HOME— Soil Fertility; Cultivation; Moisture; 
Sanitation; Beautifying the Home; Social and Community Work. 

When the four years' work is finished, start in again with the first 
year's work. By this time the older pupils have graduated and the 
work will be new again to both teacher and pupils. 

Rotation of subjects gives the pupils more agriculture, keeps the 
work live and real and vital, and makes it easier for the county super- 
intendent, who usually has little or no help in rural supervision. He 
can train his teachers for one line of work, while it is very difficult to 
train them for all lines of work. 



DO NOTHING AND YOU'LL GET NOTHING 3'. 



THESE THINGS ARE COMING 

FOR OUR 

FARM BOYS AND GIRLS 

HIGH SCHOOL ADVANTAGES 

IM THE COUMTRY 

TEACHERS TRAINED TO TEACH 

ll\l THE COUNTRY 

TEACHERS EMPLOYED FOR 12 MONTHS 

INSTRUCTION THE YEAR ROUND 

TRAINING THE CHILD THRU HIS WORK 

A HOME FOR THE TEACHER 

IN THE COMMUNITY 

EQUAL SCHOOL ADVANTAGES 

EQUAL EDUCATIONAL RESPONSIBILITIES 

ARE THE CHILDREN WORTH IT 

IF NOT SAY NOTHING DO NOTHING 
AND you'll get NOTHING 



These Things Are Coming 

THE war will help to make a new America, Great changes are 
coming in customs of living, in industrial activities, in educational 
methods and opportunities. Some changes will approach radical 
reforms; but they are coming — not only in Missouri but everywhere. 

These better things, however, will not be thrust upon us; they 
will come because of a keener realization of our obligations of citizen- 
ship, because of our broader vision of things, and finally as a reward 
of our labor. The shack school house must go. The country high 
school will come; teachers will be trained to teach country boys and 
girls in terms of country life; the school term will be longer — teachers 
will be employed for the whole year (12 months), and live in a teachers' 
cottage in the community provided by the school district. 

This does not mean that there will be a 12 months' term of school, 
but it does mean that at the close of the school term, the teacher will 
remain in the community and carry her influence into the homes of 
the children, training them in things which concern their home 
problems. The state school tax will be equalized. The city, town 
and country will all pay an equal share for these better things. 

The country boys and girls will have decent educational advan- 
tages, a real high school right out in the country in the midst of their 
homes. Are the boys and girls worth it? If not, say nothing, do 
nothing and you'll get nothing. 



34 GET TOGETHER— WORK TOGETHER 



WE DOWY NEED TO HAVE 
POOR COUNTRY SCHOOLS 

WE CAN PROVIDE 

PURE WATER 
DECEAIT OUT HOUSES 
A JACKETED STOVE 
A WORK SHOP 

WE CAN 

CLEAN UP PAINT UP FIX UP 
HIRE A GOOD TEACHER 
PAY A DECENT SALARY 
TEACH REAL THINGS 

ORGANIZE A COUNTRY 

SCHOOL COUNCIL 



You Don't Need to Have Poor Country 

Schools 

T^ATHERS and Mothers, observe this chart! Study it! Remember 
•*• it! Follow it in word and action. 

Do not forget that the country school is the home of your boys and 
girls for about eight months of each year — and for eight or 20 years of 
their young lives. 

Make it a fit place for them to live in and to learn in. 

You can organize a community council, get together and work for 
better things in the home and the school. 

You don't need to have poor country schools. The country school 
will be just what you make it, and no more. 

If you want it to be a credit to the community, get busy. 



PEOPLE MUST HAVE VISION 



You can provide pure water by digging a new well or cleaning out 
the old one. You can provide decent outhouses, a jacketed stove, and a 
workshop where children can learn by doing real things. 

You can clean up, paint up, fix up; hire a better teacher and pay her 
a decent salary. You can have window shades, and pictures on the 
walls; plenty of dry wood, and a good stove; clock, broom, maps, waste 
basket, shelves for lunch baskets and a store room. You can have com- 
fortable seats and a good blackboard. You can visit the school and see 
that your boys and girls take an interest in their school work. 

You can hold meetings, forget prejudices and jealousies and work 
together for the well-being of the whole community. 

Wherever you find poor live stock, fences that are falling down, 
barns and houses that need painting and repairing, and poor school 
houses, you are sure to find scrub people. You are judged by what you 
have about you; by the quality of your live stock; by the general appear- 
ance of your home. 

If you employ scrub methods of education, you will have scrub 
boys and girls who will grow into scrub men and women, a discredit to 
you, a disappointment to themselves, a disgrace to the nation. 



Where There Is No Vision 
the People Perish 

SELF-SATISFACTION and contentment with present 
conditions is a most dangerous factor in the life of an 
individual, a community, a state, or a nation. No 
great thing has ever been done without a vision. 

It has been well said that there exist in every community 
the forces and the ability to solve that community's prob- 
lems. They may be and frequently are undeveloped, but 
they are none the less there. These forces must be sought 
out, stimulated, trained, and developed, and then applied 
to problems of the community. 



H 



EAVEN itself cannot help you if you have 
no desire to help yourself. 



36 



BOTH IGNORANT— NEITHER EDUCATED 



BOTH IGNORANT NEITHER EDUCATED 

ONE SCHOOLED THE OTHER SKILLED 



VISIONARY 

THEORETICAL 

IMPRACTICAL 

HELPLESS 



SLAVE 

TO 

BOOKS 




HAS NO 
VISION 

NARROW 
LIMITED 



>^ INTO OUTLOOK 

SLAVE 

TO HIS 

J TOOLS 



KNOWS A LOT d/ W6R!(S A LOT 

, BUT , , BUT 

CANT DO NOTHIN DONT KNOW NOTHIN 

THE EDUCATED MAN 

IS OWE 

WHO CAN HOLD THE VISION 
AND USE THE TOOL 



Both Ignorant 

\ 7ISI0N comes not from work alone, nor from books and words alone, 
^ but through a combination of the two. The highest type of citizen 
can be produced only as he is trained through his life's work. After all, the 
whole object and purpose of education is to make a great human being 
capable of performing all the duties efficiently that come to him as a citizen. 

Remember, the primary purpose is not to create a man who can grow 
more corn and raise more pigs — with emphasis on the corn and pigs; the 
object is first to make useful men and women and as a result there will 
be greater production. The emphasis should be placed on the man, not 
on his work, nor on the product of his labor. 

We must not lose the vision when we grasp the tool, for the educated 
man is the one who can hold the vision and use the tool. 

One danger is that we will forget the man and emphasize the job. 

It is the opinion of many people that education is a matter of putting 
a man on to his job. This is absolutely wrong. 



BOOKS A^E TOOLS 37 



The pickpocket is on to his job. 

The horse thief is on to his job. 

The burglar is on to his job. 

Germany was on to her job — in making submarines, powder, bullets 
and gas bombs, but behind it all there was the wrong principle. It is 
not enough to just be on to the job — moral, social and civic duties are 
essential to good citizenship. Nor is it enough to just read books; 
for he who reads and reads, and reads and does not, is like he who 
plows and plows, and plows and sows not. 

The figure on the left of the chart on page 36 is an example of a man 
who has not learned to think in terms of what he can do. He has been 
schooled in terms of words. His teacher's idea of education was like 
that of the Missionary in India, who one day gave three native boys this 
lesson: 

"Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so 
to them." 

He told the boys that when they had learned this lesson to report to 
him. Sometime afterwards he met one of the boys who had been in 
the class and asked him why he had not reported. 

The boy said, "I have not yet learned the lesson." 

The missionary was surprised. 

"Why," he replied, "the lesson is not difficult," and he repeated: 
"Whatsoever ye would," etc., but the boy interrupted. "0 yes, yes, me 
can say it but me can't do it yet." 

A man may have talent, culture and schooling, have a master's 
degree, yet be unable to make a living. 

Education is that training which fits for the duties of life — all the 
duties — development of mind and muscle, training for citizenship, for 
home-making, for parenthood, for social and economic duties. 

Education is derived from all our surroundings and experiences 
and can not be limited by any set term of years, nor any place nor system. 
It is a progression all through life. 

There is one great principle: If we are to help the world and 
humanity, we must help through the things that concern all the people — 
through the things that they give the world; their days and years of 
toil and labor. 

The boy who has raised a calf or a pig has learned some of the 
principles of feeding, and this with the profit he received made the work 
amount to something. Work — real problems — develops strength, s^lf- 
confidence and ability. Work makes better citizens physically, spirit- 
ually, morally, intellectually, economically. 



38 



EDUCATION PAYS 



HIGH SCHOOL 

EDUCATION PAYS 

YEARLY IfMCOI^E 



HIGH SCHOOL 
TRAI(\III\IG 


AGE 


NO H. S. 
TRAINING 


IN HIGH SCHOOL 


14 


I $200 


IN HIGH SCHOOL 


16 


■ 250 


S500 ^ 


18 


■ 350 


750 ^H 


20 


■i 470 


1.000 w^m 


£2 


■■ 575 


1,150 ^HB 


24 


^m 600 


1,550 i^^^m 


25 


^■688 



$7,337 



TOTAL S5.II2 



H. SCHOOL TRAIIMED BOYS-WAGES $3.50 PER DAY 
WO H. SCHOOL TRAI(\IIWG-WAGES «l.50 PER DAY 



Education Does Fay 

OTUDY the Chart on this page. It proves that Education Does Pay. 
*^ Notice that at 25 years of age the boys with a high school training 
were receiving $862 per year more salary, and have already, in seven 
years, received $2,225 more money than the boys received who left high 
school at 14 years and have been working for 1 1 years. 

Uneducated laborers earn on the average $500 per year for 40 
years, a total of $20,000. High school graduates earn on the average 
$1,000 per year for 40 years, a total of $40,000. 



EDUCATION INCREASES PRODUCTIVE POWER 39 

The Dividends From Education 

(From "The Etude" Magazine) 

President A. W. Van Hoose, of Shorter College, Georgia, gives the 
following facts relating to the value of education: 

1. Education Increases Productive Power. 

Proof: Massachusetts gives her citizens 7 years of schooling; the 
United States gives its citizens 4.4 years of schooling; Tennessee gives 
her citizens 3 years of schooling. 

Results: Massachusetts citizens produce an average of $260 per 
capita per year; citizens of the United States produce an average of 
$170 per year per capita; citizens of Tennessee produce an average of 
$116 per year per capita. 

2. Education Helps Men to Perform Distinguished Service. 
Proof: With no schooling, of five million men only 31 attained 

distinction; v/ith elementary schooling, of 33 million, 808 attained 
distinction; with high school education: of two million, 1,245 attained 
distinction; with college education: of one million, 5,768 attained dis- 
tinction. 

Conclusion: The child with no schooling has one chance in 150,000 
cf rendering distinguished service. 

The child with elementary education has four times this chance; 
The child with high school education has 87 times this chance. The 
young man or woman with college education has 800 times this chance. 

Will you. High School Graduate, multiply your present efficiency 
nearly 10 times by getting for yourself the very best college education 
possible? Decide at once that you will. 

3. Education and Statesmanship. 

Fact: Less than one per cent of Americans are college graduates, 
but this one per cent has furnished: 

Fifty-five per cent of cur Presidents; 36 per cent of our Members of 
Congress; 47 per cent of the Speakers of the House; 54 per cent of the 
Vice-Presidents; 62 per cent of the Secretaries of State; 67 per cent of the 
A^ttorneys-General; 69 per cent of the Judges of the Supreme Court. 
4. Every Day Spent in School Pays the Child Nine Dollars. 

Every day cpent in college pays the young man or woman $55.54. 
Proof: Illiterate laborers earn an average of $500 per year; in 40 years 
they would earn $20,000; high school graduates earn an average of 
$1,000 per year; in 40 years they would earn $40,000; college graduates 
earn an average of $2,000 per year; in 40 years they would earn $80,000. 



40 EDUCATION INCREASES EARNING POWER 

To get the high school education required 12 years of school, or 
2,160 days in school. This time spent in school added to the income of 
the high school graduate $20,000. Divide $20,000 by 2. 1 60 and we have 
$9.26 as the amount that every day spent in the grammar and high school 
was worth to the high school graduate. 

But look a little further: 

While the average amount earned by the high school graduate in an 
active life of forty years is $40,000, the amount earned in the same time 
by the college graduate is $80,000. He, therefore, adds $40,000 to his 
life's income by reason of the four years, or 720 days, that he spent in 
college, the college year being 180 days. Now, if we will divide $40,000 
by 720, we will have $55.55, the amount that every day in college is 
worth to a man or woman. 



Survey of Other States Would Show 
Like Conditions 



m 



EADER, just because you live in some other state 
do not assume that your rural schools are very 
much different than those in Missouri. 



If your state made a survey of its schools it would show 
about the same difference between the educational oppor- 
tunities in the cities and in the country as exists in Missouri. 

Missouri has made a state-wide survey. She has found 
out what the matter is with her rural schools. She has gone 
farther. She has taken steps to improve her schools — to 
give her country boys and girls a square deal. Other states 
should follow. 

Missouri has faced the situation squarely — is solving 
the problem. She has started something — is getting results. 

Read the following pages and see for yourself what 
Vitalizing the Teaching of Agriculture has done for Missouri. 

Note the results obtained and decide whether or not the 
children of your state are as interested — as eager to learn — as 
able to do things — as those of Missouri. 



What Missouri Teachers, County Superin- 
tendents, Patrons and Children Say 
About Vitalized Agriculture and The 
Rotation Plan of Teaching 

The children are much more interested in this year's work than they 
were in last year's. They come to school early — Oh, so early. They 
work all noon and recesses, stay after school if I'll let them work. They 
donated tools. Getting them was no task at all. We have had fine 
training in putting everything in its place at four o'clock. 

The children enjoyed the composition immensely. And one thing 
is accomplished in this line which I never before got from my pupils in a 
composition either in high school or grade work. It is this: They are 
absolutely themselves. They enjoyed reading them so much that you 
would have thought they were playing school sure enough. 

Three fathers have said: "When you teach the children how to splice 
rope, let me know. I want to come over and learn." 

Most of the sewing I teach will be included in Junior Red Cross work, 
in which I can teach the fundamentals.^Mrs. F. D. Goodwin, teacher. 
Green Ridge, Mo. 

I have introduced the Rotation Plan for teaching Agriculture and it 
certainly has been a success. 

The parents are interested and are anxious to help their children. 
The work has formed a basis for many problems in arithmetic and for 
subjects for composition. — Dorsey Griffy, teacher, Lathrop, Mo. 



One thing I wish to mention is the fact that before this year the 
boys were very destructive to the school apparatus, but Vitalized Agri- 
culture put new life into their systems and it's different this year. 

School closes April I9th. Every one of the pupils has said: "I am 
so sorry." 

The parents report that this as the first time their children have ever 
been sorry when school closed. — Tracy Blevins, teacher. Mound 
City, Mo. 

We have made a nail box, book rack, and a chart. 

My pupils are delighted with the "Making Things" year and want 
to work at it all the time because, as they say: "It's doing things." 

The class sends this message: "Wish you could see our chart. It is 
perfect, and our nail box holds water. "^Belle Horn, teacher, Howell 
County, Moo 



42 CHILDREN LIKE AGRICULTURE 

I must say that I am sorry to think that our carpentry period has 
closed, for I just loved to hear the tap-tap of the nammers and the whiz 
of the saw. — Ruth Brewster, teacher, Howell County, Mo. 



Vitalized Agriculture is all that we hoped it would be, and more. 
We have proof of our success by our rank of 1st at the Blackwater 
Township Fair held November 8th, 9th and 1 0th. 

There are six schools in the township, who competed at the Fair. 
Our school was the only one in the township carrying the course in 
Vitalized Agriculture as outlined by Prof. Holden, and we felt that our 
success in winning first place was due largely to our Agriculture. 

The children were better able to judge corn, wheat and oats, show 
the evil effects of corn root worms, and do many other things about 
which many inquiries were made by patrons of other schools. Needless 
to say, the parents of our pupils were very proud. — Helen Morris, 
teacher, Pettis County, Mo. 



We find the work of the Second Year Rotation Plan of extreme 
interest. The pupils are always eager for class time and often spend 
portions of the noon hour upon their work. The patrons are much 
interested in seeing this new work tried out. Many parents have fur- 
nished extra tools and a few have bought the smaller tools for their 
children. One farmer provided us with a bench. The Lumber Company 
has taken quite an interest in our work and has spoken of it in compli- 
mentary terms. Letter writing, language work, arithmetic, etc., have 
a new interest when in connection with agriculture. — Betty Shaw, 
teacher, Rinehart, Mo. 



I opened school the last Monday in August and presented the 
Vitalized Agriculture work. The first thing the boys made was a strong 
work bench. 

We organized, and each contributed to a fund to purchase the neces- 
sary tools, and made a notebook. 

The first article made was a nail box. The children drew a picture 
of their schoolhouse and wrote a composition of their organization. 
After finishing the nail box, they made a drawing of it and wrote about it, 
all of which was put in their notebooks. Mr. Johnson, Audrain County 
Superintendent, said the books are "a thing of beauty." — Mrs. Eva 
Neumann, teacher, Mexico, Mo. 



Vitalized Agriculture has put a new, interesting, and vital phase on 
school teaching for me, as it has not only put life into the agriculture, but 



CHILDREN LOVE TO DO THINGS 43 

it has also vitalized the arithmetic, the language, the writing, the draw- 
ing, and the geography. 

Vitalized Agriculture to the boys and girls in my school has meant 
Vitalized School, for the children would not miss school unless they 
were sick because they were afraid they would miss something in agri- 
culture. They were always willing to bring things from home whenever 
we needed them. 

One of the greatest results and most patriotic results that the Vital- 
ized Agriculture has accomplished in our district is that almost all the 
farmers are testing at least part of their seed corn, and this is practically 
the first time that any of them has tested any seed corn. 

Vitalized Agriculture has awakened our community to the fact 
that they and their school have a wonderful opportunity to help put forth 
in this great country of ours a forward movement in education; that is, 
teaching in terms of the lives of the people and the community. — 
Dorothy Kurtz, teacher, Holt County, Mo. 



We certainly are not lacking in interest this year. The children 
have done unusually good work, not only in "making things" but in their 
other subjects as well. We do not have dull days at school any more. 
I have always enjoyed teaching but this year has been more enjoyable 
than any other that I have taught. No one has to be made to get his 
lessons. All the children want to do that. — Arethusa Lowery, teacher,' 
Eureka School, Atchison Co. 



GIVE THE BOYS AND GIRLS 
SOMETHING NEW EACH YEAR 



m 



EMEMBER, that in the rural schools, 
the younger children know what is 
taught to the 7th and 8th grades — in 
fact they actually help their older brothers 
and sisters do the agricultural work at home 
and in the school. Then why not give 
them something new each year? 



What the Children Say About the 

Holden Plan for Teaching 

Agriculture 

During the week that we made our first reading in corn-testing, 
James, a ten-year-old was out to help his father sow oats. When I 
told about our reading, that evening (his corn had tested 99 per cent and 
had to be read by another pupil) he exclaimed: "Now, don't you see, 
papa, I told you I'd miss the best part by staying home!" 

His father was convinced, and the next day he sowed oats alone, 
and we had James back at school. The record of past terms shows that 
this father has been taking his children out of school just after the 
Christmas holidays, but this year they are both in school yet, and the 
daughter is 16. I am not saying what has done the magic work. — Callie 
Summers, Howell County. 



After studying wheat out of a textbook for about three days, one 
boy said: "Let's quit this stuff and get out into Mr. Miller's wheat 
field and study wheat right." 

After testing which was the most productive, the one, two, or three- 
stalk hills, we figured out the yield per acre in each case. One boy said: 
*i wish we had this kind of arithmetic every day." Another fifth grade 
boy said: "These problems are easier than the ones in our arithmetic." 
They really required a great deal more thinking, however, than the 
ones in the arithmetic. 

When asked what the pupils would do if Vitalized Agriculture was 
taken out of the school, the children of the directors said: "Our papas 
would get no peace until they put it back." 

There would be a general uproar. 

Today is the last day of our school and it's been the most interesting 
one of all, due to the fact that we've been busy doing real work instead 
of reading about it. — Pupils of the Brown School. 



When the children were gathering the seed corn one of the neighbors 
saw them and wanted to know if there was no school. This was the 
answer: "School! Well, I should say there is! But we are learning 
real things NOW and not a lot of words. And say, if you will come to 
school you will find out the reason for these poor crops." 

This, perhaps, will give you an idea of what the children think of the 
work. — A Country School Teacher. 

School Officers' Viewpoint 

We are going to keep the same teacher next year and give him a good 
raise in salary for we want the Rotation Plan carried out in our school. 

44 



VITALIZED AGRICULTURE PAYS 45 

Since the demonstration of the work done in the Vitalized Agriculture 
School, a number of school officers have asked for one of these special 
teachers and said they were ready to pay the price. 

The demand for specially trained Vitalized Agriculture teachers was 
greater than the supply; so 10 rural districts in Butler County combined 
and engaged Miss Ruth Oliver to supervise the work in each school and 
contracted to pay her $60 per month. H. 0. Harrowood. 



It is some event in Missouri Educational Affairs when 10 country 
districts each sign a note to spend $60 extra to have a country school 
supervisor. — T. J. Walker, State Country School Inspector. 

The inspector of Rural Schools writes: Vitalized Teachers is right. 
They all have the look of "Divine interest," and work with an avidity that 
makes one wonder if he is not dreaming of a pedagogue paradise instead 
of working with country teachers. 

The Vitalized Agriculture work in Missouri has passed beyond 
the experimental stage. It is now considered as necessary in our dis- 
trict as arithmetic. The parents say they will never tolerate anything 
else. The pupils are delighted with it and are looking forward to next 
year's work with great interest. Teachers, pupils, and parents in nearly 
all the other districts in the township are wanting it next year. — Bert 
Cooper. 

Patrons' Viewpoint 

To illustrate the interest the patrons are showing, they took the 
agriculture class teacher and County Superintendent five miles for the 
purpose of attending a demonstration by a Government Seed Corn Spe- 
cialist. 

The patrons of a community meeting declared the school building 
not adapted to the need of a Vitalized School, and pledged money and 
the labor for remodeling, which plan included a work room and a kitchen 
with necessary equipment. The parents are as interested as the children. 
They report a difference of altitude in some of the children toward 
the work of the farm. 

The people in some districts are taking more pride in the reputation 
of their school and have provided new equipment. 

The community has met more in the half year than in all of the last 
year. 

It has caused the parents to realize that morals may be hurt by 
unsanitary conditions and old outbuildings. 

I am emphatic in saying that Vitalized Agriculture pays. 



Is a Boy Worth as Much as a Pig? 

WE study the pig and study the pig. We puzzle over his needs. 
We erect good shelter for him. We feed him regularly and give 
him pure water and keep his pen clean. We send for booklets so we can 
read about the best things to do for him. We watch his development, 
noting every little change in his growth and disposition. We protect 
him in every way from disease, insanitation and incorrect breeding. If 
he gets sick, all our other work ceases while we call the veterinary to 
doctor him. We expend this time and thought and energy without 
complaint. There is almost a tenderness in our solicitude over the pig's 
health and care. 

But our boy! Do we study him — or just let him grow any way he 
will? Do we take the same interest in him that we do in the pig? Do we 
bother ourselves much about his needs? Do we plan his education and 
his training? Do we furnish for him the best school within our means, 
with the best teacher and the best equipment? Do we interest ourselves 
in his school life, keeping in active touch with what he does there? Do 
we visit the school and talk with the teacher? Do we make any sacrifice 
for his welfare and for the future good that he may be to himself end 
to us? 

Surely we must think him as valuable as our pigs. And as worthy 
of attention. He is human live stock — with the most wonderful pos- 
sibilities. 

Read this little incident — it may cause you to think: 

A mother living near one of our large agricultural colleges in the West 
telephoned for assistance for her sick son, asking if someone could 
not be sent to help him. The answer came back over the phone that this 
was not the purpose of the college, it being agricultural only. "We are 
sorry, madam, but we cannot help you, " was the reply. 

The very same day a message came from a farmer in the next county 
saying that he thought his hogs had cholera and he wanted help. Im- 
mediately a veterinary sped his way over the country in an auto, with his 
inoculation instruments and material, to take care of the sick hogs. 

Of course pigs are worth more than boys. 



The Meaning of Success 

' I '0 be successful is not merely to be rich in money. There are many 
* men who have not much of this world's goods and yet are more 
successful than some others who have only hoarded their gold without 
contributing to the welfare of the community in which they live. 

46 



VITALIZING THE STUDY OF 
AGRICULTURE 

Missouri's Forward Movement for Rural Schools 
Is Well Worth a Study 

By T. J. WALKER, State Inspector of Rural Schools, Missouri 

(From Normal Instructor, November, 1918i 

SCENE: A typical American country schoolhouse, interior view. Per- 
sons: Country school teacher, country boys and girls — 20 more or 
less. Place: Somewhere in Missouri. Time: Late winter. 

The boys and girls are working about a table, some sitting, some 
standing, talking in an audible tone of voice. They are of varying ages 
and sizes, ranging in age from 10 to 15 years, and in size from the 
little, timid girl to the overgrown, awkward boy. Happiness is pictured 
on their faces. Interest, enthusiasm and naturalness are evident in their 
conduct. Ears of corn, seed corn testing-boxes, and pencils and paper 
are the materials with which the children are working. Around the walls, 
in racks orderly arranged, are hundreds of ears of corn, each bearing a tag. 

Things Before Ideas 

What sort of school is this? How did it come about? The school is 
a real country school. Not rural in location merely, but in spirit and pur- 
pose as well. The teacher is teaching in terms of the children's lives. 
She has found that pedagogy is a thing to practise — a means of develop- 
ing boys and girls- and not simply a bridge by which she may cross from 
the realm of the layman into the land of the licensed teacher. She has 
learned that "Things come before ideas," and the corollary that ideas do 
not come without being preceded by things; that we learn to do a thing 
by doing that thing, and not by doing some other thing, and that the 
mind grows by its own activity. Long ago she could say these words; now 
she is living these truths. She has learned, too, that agriculture is not in 
books. She knows that its spirit is to be found in fields of corn and wheat 
and oats; in meadows of clover, and alfalfa and timothy; in the pastures 
with horses and cattle and sheep; in the barnyard with pigs and calves, 
and in the poultry yard where the hens are cackling and filling the air 
with voices that put a song in the housewife's heart; in short, that agri- 
culture is all the environment of country life. 

She has also acquired a new viewpoint of education. She now thinl^s 
of educational agriculture instead of agricultural education. She uses corn 
and alfalfa because she sees in these things a means of educating her boys and 
girls. She is thinking of boys and girls more than ofboo^s and subject matter. 

47 



48 ROTATION PLAN SOLVES PROBLEM 

Workshop for Expression and Activity 

How did this sort of school come to be? How did it get away from 
the idea that a school is a place for books and not for corn, a workshop for 
expression and activity rather than a jail-like cloister for suppression and 
passivity? 

First, the rural school teachers, county superintendents, and state 
superintendent had long been conscious that something was wrong. 
Second, they were honestly looking for a way to right the wrong. Third, 
they were willing to get out of the rut of tradition into the path of prog- 
ress. They saw that the country people were not responding to the call 
for more liberal financial support of their schools; but they failed to see 
clearly that the country school was not meeting the needs of the people 
and that the people would naturally be slow about buying more of the 
things that did not satisfy them and of which they already had more 
than they needed. 

These school people had preached, but practice had continued in the 
ways of yore. They had written courses of study in agriculture, emphasi?- 
ing the concrete, outlining experiments, and detailing problems, but the 
teaching continued to be abstract and dead. They had encouraged club 
activities, but these were for the most part outside the school and brought 
little or no vitality into it. Occasionally, some high-spirited teacher 
would take hold of the steering wheel, step on the gas, and climb out of 
the ditch, but soon the school was back in the rut and some other person 
was the center of attention. She had gotten out, but the new path was 
not clear and the old rut was preferable to a trackless waste. Missouri 
rural schools, like those of most of the other states, were making no prog- 
ress because they knew not where to go. 

In January, 1917, Prof. Perry G. Holden, Director of the Agricul- 
tural Extension Department of the International Harvester Company, 
delivered an address in Columbia, Missouri, before an audience of repre- 
sentative farmers and people interested in country life. He maintained 
that agriculture in rural schools would vitalize rural life. His big ideas 
were: Teach in terms of life, study things, do something, don't teach over 
and over again the same thing year after year. 

The Rotation Plan of Teaching 

The last of these ideas he called "Rotation. " He outlined a plan 
which, briefly stated, was this: First year — Work with and study crops; 
Second year — Making things — carpentry, rope tying, cement work; Third 
year — Living things — animals, birds, insects; Fourth year — The heme 
and the soil. 



ROTATION THE BIG IDEA 49 

This last idea, "Rotation," over a four-year period, was the new idea 
and therefore the one that jarred our placidity. The first one, "Teaching 
in terms of life," we could endorse (though we had not practised it), be- 
cause it connected us with the idea of "apperceptive mass," a term much 
loved, because knowing how to say it had helped us to get our first cer- 
tificate. So with the next two, "Study things" and "Do something," 
we recognized them as old, plausible theories, notwithstanding the fact 
that in the schoolroom we had seldom put them to the test. But to take 
pupils from the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth grades and put them to- 
gether in one class to study corn contradicted our idea of gradation, our 
sense of propriety, and our fixed ideas of lockstep, which we were better 
pleased to call "System." 

On closer examination, however, we found that this had many argu- 
ments in favor of it. It made the classes larger and in most rural schools 
they were too small. It connected the agriculture class with a much 
larger number of homes in the community, and this work was to take 
hold of mothers and fathers and home life, if it was to do what we desired. 
vitalize rural life. "Rotation," above all, would keep up interest, for by 
this plan children would not be required to take the same thing over year 
after year, or to study the matter that had been rehearsed year after year 
in their presence, by the older pupils. 

Holden Agreed to Help 

The State Superintendent of Public Schools, Uel W. Lamkin, wanted 
to do something for the country children to such a degree that he was 
willing to attempt the new in order to do it. Realizing that telling folks 
to do things had failed, he determined that those who undertook this work 
should be shown. Accordingly, about one-fifth of the county superin- 
tendents of the state were selected to give a week of intensive work in 
studying the new plans. Professor Holden agreed to take charge of the 
instruction, and the State Rural School Inspector was charged with the 
responsibility of its success. 

These county supermtendents came, and for five days of 14 
hours each they worked. They counted stands of corn and made and 
solved problems growing out of the count. They "put over" tests of 
seed corn. They dug up alfalfa roots. They treated oats for smut. In 
short, they got the vision and learned to do some definite things. 

Then they returned to their counties, selected a few teachers of the 
right kind, and in a week of work, similar to that which they had received, 
they gave to the teachers the necessary viewpoint and the self-confidence 
acquired from having actually done a few of the things as they were to be 
done in their schools. During the year, the county superintendents 
supervised these teachers, and together with the county superintendent. 



50 



PEOPLE ENDORSE PLAN 




the teachers held frequent conferences, planning their work for the next 

two or three weeks. Short courses 
were held by Professor Holden 
during the year in various parts 
of the state for these county super- 
intendents and their teachers. 

The results are that in Mis- 
souri more than one hundred 
schools fit the picture briefly de- 
scribed in the first paragraph of 
this article. These schools are 
vitalized, not in agriculture alone, 
but in all the subjects taught. 
Arithmetical problems growing 
out of the study of corn are 
carried over into the arithmetic 
classes for study and solution. 

Language problems take the period ordinarily assigned to that subject, so 

that these lessons are really motivated. 






E 



In "white" counties Vitalized Agriculture 
is being taught. In "shaded" counties steps 
have been taken to adopt plan. "Black" 
counties have not yet taken up the plan. 



People Like Plan 

The people have uniformly, unanimously, and enthusiastically en- 
dorsed the work in the districts where it has been done. One farmer 
told the writer that as a member of the school board, he would never con- 
sider the application of a teacher who could not teach this kind of agri- 
culture. They realize its value. Because it satisfies a need, the people 
have retained the teachers and raised their salaries. 

The state university and the five normal schools have endorsed the 
movement and have organized courses or work according to the plan. 
Last summer Professor Holden conducted short courses of a week's dura- 
tion in each of the five normal school districts under the direction and 
authority of the State Superintendent of Schools, giving to normal school 
teachers, county superintendents, and country teachers the proper view- 
point. 

Missouri knows that the plan works. She will in a few years have 
it working in all of her rural schools. The State institutions for the 
training of teachers will find a way of getting all of the teachers into the 
institutions to prepare themselves thoroughly, or they will find a way to 
prepare these teachers in their respective counties. 

It is worth the price. Missouri will pay it. 



Agriculture the Greatest Industry 

TN the United States there are about 40,000,000 people engaged in 
■'• money-making pursuits. Of these, about 12,600,000 are engaged in 
agricultural work; 10,800,000 in manufacturing and mechanics; about 
5,300,000 in domestic service. (This class needs some explanation. It 
includes keepers and employes cf 
hotels, restaurants, boarding and 
rooming houses and laundries, 
bootblacks, umbrella menders and 
scissor grinders, employes of sa- 
loons and dance halls, and of some 
minor occupations. It does not 
include housewives, who are 
classed in the U. S. Census Re- 
port as having "no occupation.") 
7,600,000 are employed in trades 
and transportation, and 1,800,000, 
or only 5 per cent of the workers, 
are in the professions — law, medi- 
cine, teaching, ministry, etc. 

Yet for years our school system has been based on the needs of that 
5 per cent. 

Isn't it about time that we gave some consideration to the other 95? 

Trade schools and manual training have been receiving considera- 
tion for several years, but it is only very recently that we have begun 
to give any attention to this largest group of all — the farmers, who com- 
prise 33 per cent of our working population. 

Not only that 5 per cent, but all these boys and girls have a right 
to ask that the schools give them some training for carrying on their 
work in the world. 

It is not practical to educate all the 25,000,000 school children cf 
the United States for the professions, if less than 2,000,000 of them can 
find employment in those lines. 

Training in agriculture will result in a general improvem.ent in 
agricultural practices, and the direct and immediate result of this im- 
provement is better homes, better schools, and better education. 



AGRICULTURE 
THE GREATEST INDUSTRY 

U.S. CENSUS 1910 

CAPITAL INVESTED 


AGRICULTURE 


S4I BILLION 1 


MFG & RY'S 


•36 BILLION. ^1 


PEOPLE EMPLOYED 


AGRICULTURE 




10.800.000 


MFG s MECH 


7.600.000 
5.300.000 
1.800000 


TRADES-TRAMS 


DOMESTIC 


PROFESSIONAL 




® 



LIBRftRY OF CONGRES: 




019 885 169 3 



llii; 



HAKVESTEB PBES8 



